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I love this stuff.  It's all about love!  And charity is the chief of the virtues.  I walk through defining charity, and then I do a step by step commentary on "Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  And love your neighbor as yourself.  That is love God with all your intentions, with your passions, with your mind, and with all your outward actions.

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In honor of the year dedicated to Saint joseph, I give a reflection on his point of view of the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ and some of the things we can do to imitate his virtues that he expressed at that time. Many blessings to each of you and may Saint Joseph intercede on our behalf!

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Here in this episode of hope, I address hope as desire for the Kingdom of God and a reliance on God's help.  That means we have to lean away from presumption, pelagianism, and despair.  It's easy to think "I'm a good person.  I don't need God."  But it's wrong.  We need God's help, and he's very ready to provide it!

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Here we dive into faith and reflect on Abraham our Father in Faith who exemplified "the obedience of faith" that St. Paul talked about.  In our crisis of faith, we must hold fast to these two dimensions: trust and obedience.

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We talk about temperance, the habitual disposition to moderate our passions and impulses.  The fruit of temperance is serenity.  We have so many impulses that we need to control: food, sex, domineering attitudes, shopping, rest, work, social media...not to mention any addictions.

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Wokeism is a bad word for some; for others, it's salvation.  What about for Christians.  We need to use our brains to see how the God-given worldview helps us to interpret this new, secular movement.   

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We dive into justice today.  Justice is the firm disposition to give to God or someone their due.  It can be either the justice of exchange (the swapping of goods or services), distributive justice (the sharing of the community goods with the individual), or the justice that "gives back" (when we give our duty to the whole--I called this retributive just...but it's not!  Sorry!).

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We dive into a little catechesis on fortitude!  Fortitude is the habitual disposition to withstand any obstacles.  It must be done prudently recognizing any fear but not being a slave to it.  It can be expressed either as patience, as someone just has to withstand the obstacles that are coming at the person, or as courage, we someone walks forward in the good despite the obstacles that it will entail.

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Prudence is the use of right reason to direct our actions.  It identifies the way to get there.  It identifies the golden mean between extremes.  It commands virtuous actions like a charioteer.  It includes deliberation (not acting rashly), judgment (not waiting for ever or using the wisdom of the world), and execution of the decision (which is aided by the other virtues, otherwise it's just a pretty intention).

We get there by:
1) Seeking advice
2) Knowing the purpose of life and how to get there
3) Deliberating decisions
4) Waiting for disruptive passions to subside.

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We walk through the Nichomachean Ethics of Aristotle and look step by step at his thought process of noting that (1) each craft has an end, (2) there are minor crafts that serve greater crafts, (3) there is a craft, an art, a "know-how" above all things to which all other crafts are directed, (4) this is called happiness, or human flourishing, (5) to understand it better, we need to know what is unique about human beings, (6) human beings have parts of the soul that are shared by plants and animals, but the rational part highlights our unique human functioning, (7) we live in accordance with this by acting in according with right reason, that is, by a) being virtuous and b) contemplating/cherishing the highest of truths, the highest of goods.

For a Christian, this all unites in friendship with God.  It is being virtuous with a focus on the highest virtues (charity), and to contemplate and appreciate the highest of truths/goods (the Holy Trinity).  These unite in what we understand to be friendship.  Charity is friendship, and in friendship there is the deepest form of knowing.